5 Times Spinelli Does Something Stupid
by Animegirl1129
Summary: 5 Times Damian Spinelli Does Something Decidedly Stupid to Protect Jason Morgan. Title says it all, I think.


Five Times Damian Spinelli Does Something Stupid To Protect Jason Morgan

_**Thanks to suerum and I'm glad to finally get the basic idea of this one out of my head. Characters not mine. Enjoy!**_

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1. "You," Jason breathes out, keeping pressure on the steadily bleeding wound along the length of Spinelli's arm. "You are an idiot. Don't ever do something like this ever again."

"But," Spinelli protests, hissing in pain as Jason pulls away briefly to inspects his injury. He shifts where he sits on the bumper of the SUV and allows Jason to continue his examination. "Stone Cold was oblivious to the second assailant in the area and the Jackal could not just sit idly by and see you harmed when it fell within my capabilities to draw your attention to the stranger."

Jason shakes his head and grabs a bandage out of the first aid kit he located amongst supplies in the vehicle. "If your idea of getting my attention is for me to turn around and see you bleeding on the ground beside a knife-wielding lunatic, I really hope that you never have to get my attention again. Ever." As gently as he can he wraps up Spinelli's cleaned and disinfected cut. "There, finished." He declares, and moves to collect the refuse from his doctoring.

"Much appreciated." The younger says, his arm cradled close to his chest. "Are we to make our return to Casa de Stone Cold now?"

"Not yet, no. I have some cleaning up to do so that we can't be traced to those thugs." He answers, knowing that there is certainly a good amount of evidence to deal with given Spinelli's injury. "You wait here, okay?" Jason requests, tugging off his jacket and offering it to the slightly shaking Spinelli. "I'll be back soon."

2. A week later and Spinelli is confined to his room with one hell of a bad cold and a rather elevated fever. Jason comes home late, with restocks of cough medicine from the drug store and fresh noodle soup from Kelly's and starts upstairs to check in on his hopefully sleeping protégé.

As he starts down the dark hallway, two arms curl around his neck from behind – never, ever a good thing – and without thought, he flips his assailant to the ground.

His would be attacker groans in pain upon contact with the floor.

What he finds upon turning on the light is Spinelli, blinking up at him in confusion. "What was that supposed to be?" He asks, standing over the younger's prone form.

"Mmnn, thought you were an unknown enemy intent upon harm." He says, sounding rather close to delirious now and Jason's self-defense probably hadn't made him feel any better. "The Jackal merely… sought to protect his Mentor from further unforeseen danger as Stone Cold always does in return."

"If I had been an enemy, what was your plan from here?" Jason inquires, hauling the sickly Spinelli to his feet and steering him back into the pink room.

Spinelli shrugs in answer to the question and sways where he stands, Jason's hold on him the only thing keeping him upright. "The Jackal was improvising."

"Well, don't." Jason says, pushing his protégé back upon his bed. He presses a hand against Spinelli's fevered forehead and frowns at the result. "Stop trying to protect me, okay? I can take care of myself. Don't jump in front of attacks meant for me, don't go attacking people in dark hallways for me, either. Alright? I don't want you to get hurt."

"No promises, Stone Cold." Spinelli says to himself, as Jason has gone to locate the recently purchased cold medicine. "The Jackal can make no guarantees as to such things."

3. Just two weeks later, Sonny shows up at the Penthouse. He spends near an hour complaining to Jason about the mob war his actions had irrevocably started. How killing those two idiot thugs at the warehouse had been an insanely stupid move. Now they had word that the PCPD was investigating, too.

Upon completion of his tirade, Jason heads out to check out another warehouse in danger of falling to the rival gang impeding on their turf, and Spinelli catches Sonny before he can go. "Stone Cold doesn't deserve to be blamed for what occurred." He says, with his hands shoved in his pockets and his eyes on the floor.

Sonny shakes his head. "We're going to be dealing with this for weeks. He is to blame, so I'm damn well going to blame him. And you have a hell of a lot of nerve saying that to me, Freak Boy." Sonny growls out.

Spinelli takes a deep breath, hopes that his voice won't shake and give away how utterly terrified he is right now. "I, ugh… that is, Mr. Sir, Stone Cold has always been most loyal to you, willing to forfeit not only his liberty but his life if he perceived it would be advantageous to you to do so. The Port Charles Police are aware of the incident at the warehouse and are all but ready to arrest him for it. Surely there is some protection you can offer in order to deter them from their path."

"How does Jason even understand you?" The elder sighs in frustration, most of Spinelli's words having had no effect upon him.

"Surely you owe it to Stone Cold to protect him as he has for so long protected you." Spinelli says simply. Ever since his computer alerted him to the PCPD's investigation, he's been on edge and nervous, unwilling to let Jason take the fall for the crime he'd committed in protecting the Jackal.

"Jason wasn't supposed to kill those guys. He got himself into that mess, he can get himself out of it." Sonny shrugs absently.

"He did it to protect me." Spinelli counters, not sure whether or not admitting such things to Mr. Sir will aid in his argument or rapidly bring it down in flames. "One of the men caught me and Jason was forced to act in response. He protected his protégé, and yet you will not defend yours."

"Oh, great. So, you're to blame for all of this." He spits, advancing on the hacker. "That's a good reason for me not to get involved right there. He made the… unadvised decision to protect you, and look what it's getting him. A police investigation on top of a mob war." Sonny all but laughs at him. "Why don't you dig him out of your mess then?"

Spinelli has nothing to say to that, and even if he had been able to come up with some response, Sonny storms out before he would have been able to manage.

"Perhaps I will."

4. The second the police find new evidence, Spinelli knows about it. The second that evidence turns up as a potential match to Jason, he knows about it. The second the warrant for Jason's arrest goes out, he knows about it.

Blood evidence that places Jason Morgan at the scene of the murders at Warehouse 61.

He calls Jason, his fingers already flying over his laptop as he hacks into the crime lab computers to alter and fabricate reports and results from the case. "Stone Cold," he says, voice tense as he speaks. "The Jackal has just received a most dire phone call from Fair Samantha. It seems she has run into some trouble while running surveillance for a McCall and Jackal investigation. Would you, by chance, be able to lend a hand?" When Jason agrees, he rattles off an address that is in the middle of nowhere, somewhere safe, where the police won't be looking for him. "It is most graciously appreciated."

With that task done, and his work on the laptop completed, he takes a few moments to erase any evidence potentially on his computer and heads out to do what must be done.

___

By the time Jason gets to the address Spinelli had provided him with, he knows something isn't right. Mostly because Sam calls him, just as he pulls up to the location. "Spinelli's just been arrested for a double murder," she says. "You need to get back here now. They're arraigning him in an hour and Diane says it doesn't look good."

Jason hangs up without a word and starts back as fast as he can, but it's going to take more than an hour for him to do that.

"What the hell were you thinking?"

5. Spinelli has been arraigned, denied bail and sent off to the County Jail for the night by the time Jason gets back to town. He tries to get in to see him, but no one lets him, even Diane can't get him access.

It's not until late the next day that he does finally gain entrance. And the sight he sees is exactly the reason that jail is the last place he ever wants Spinelli to be. He has a busted lip and a black eye and a cut along his jaw.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Jason demands, icy blue eyes enraged and locked on their target. "Why did you turn yourself in? The evidence… that was you, too. There's no way any of that would have linked back to you, I made sure of it." This last part he whispers, a barely audible series of words that Spinelli has to strain to hear.

Spinelli doesn't answer him. Won't even look at him. Finally, after a long moment of silence in which Jason hears the short amount of time they have ticking away, he answers. "I had to." He says, as if that explains absolutely everything.

Jason levels him with a glare that makes it clear that that answer just isn't enough as he paces along the length of the small room.

"You acted to protect the Jackal in slaying the duo of thugs. It is all I can do to keep you out of prison for the crime you committed on my behalf in return. Would you not do the same for Mr. Sir?"

"I would." He admits. "I shouldn't, but I would and I have. That doesn't mean that you should do that for me. It's different. I… I've always protected Sonny, it's what I do." Jason explains, sitting down across from his detained protégé. "You don't need to be like me. Trust me; you don't want to be like me. If I had known that you'd… do something like this trying to be like me, I would have stopped a long time ago."

Spinelli tries to interrupt him then, but Jason keeps going.

"I need to get your out of here, alright? I can't protect you in here." Spinelli isn't like Jason and Sonny and the rest of the higher-ups in the organization who have their reputations to protect them in jail, the ones that can defend themselves and retaliate appropriately when they're released. Spinelli can't defend himself and that combined with his affiliation with said higher-ups, he'd be a prime target. Jason would guess, from the injuries he's sporting, that he already has been. If he ever gets names of those responsible, they will have hell to pay. The best he could do was spread the word that Spinelli was under his protection and wasn't to be harmed any further for the rest of his stay. "How do I get you out?"

Spinelli has thought of this, he had been well aware that his jaunt in Port Charles County Jail would not be a vacation, though it had been worse than he had anticipated. With any luck, though, he wouldn't be there much longer. "I turned myself in so that I could buy time. I have several programs running deep in the mainframes of the crime labs computers. If anyone looks at the evidence of the crime again, it will be irrevocably corrupted and their case will fall apart at the seams."

Jason is only mildly relieved that Spinelli walked into this hellish situation with a plan, but that does nothing by way of getting him out right now. "How do you know they'll do that anytime in the near future?"

Spinelli kind of grins at him. "I had Diane submit paperwork demanding that the evidence be retested post haste."

There's a knock at the door to the room they're occupying, signaling that time is up and that it's time to wrap it up. "Never again, you hear me?" Jason demands, one hand squeezing Spinelli's.

"If you say so, Stone Cold." Spinelli answered, as a guard entered to escort him back to his cell. Still, he made no guarantees.


End file.
